Who is your favorite character out of Search for the Harp?

Brina watched the exchange between Cali and Nare. She wasn't sure exactly what Nare was planning, and didn't exactly like the idea of Cali going into the water without a good reason.

Suddenly, though, Brina felt a feeling rush through her body. She realized that her weapons were of no use at the moment. She instead needed to focus and use her mental abilities to protect Cali for whatever she was going to do.

Brina put her weapons away, kept her eyes on where Cali had gone into the water and focused her energy on Cali. There was a feeling that if something went wrong, her, Nare and Elias were not helpless, that they would be able to help their friend. After aa few moments, Brina, still focused on the water and Cali, spoke.

"Nare, what are you thinking? Why is Cali in the water?" She spoke not worried, just in way an honest, curious way.

What the hell?? thought Cali, feeling herself propelled backwards over the boat railing. She fought for her balance, but Nare's gentle push had something in it that didn't add up in her experience. A million doubts raced through her, and somehow she had time for all of them before she even touched the water. Nare was crazy! She didn't know what she was doing! She thought Cali had some magical power that she didn't. Nare had somehow convinced Elias to go along with her plan. They both secretly wanted her dead. They all did. Never trust the pale girls. Or your brother. Brothers were bad news.

She thought of Elias' face, and she relaxed. As much as is possible to relax when you've been thrown into shark-infested waters in which there was something big enough and scary enough to make the sharks behave themselves. Water over took her, and she closed her eyes. She trusted Elias, but with her eyes closed and her body brushing up against something that felt like sandpaper, her conclusion was Never again. The answer is always, no, I can't swim, I only dog-paddle

She opened her eyes, and immediately used the worst words that she knew and backpaddled violently to escape the toothy grin of one of the sharks. He came at her slowly, looking dreamy and foolish and butted his head under her arm like a dog as he swam past, and then came back and bumped her from behind again. She hadn't heard the sound from her words, but she also hadn't inhaled any water in her outburst. She breathed cautiously, her chest felt tight, but she was breathing. She patted the shark's nose even more cautiously. Again, she thought, what the hell?

And then, there it was. A big red-gold thing. A big red-gold head was just about all that she could take in. She felt it might be rude to examine much of it, and rudeness might get her eaten, but that didn't hold back a few choice words when she realized what she was looking at. She immediately apologized, and then rather vaguely treaded water as she wondered what to do. Nare or Brina should have done this she thought i haven't got a clue what to do with this thing

She smiled weakly. Wondering how long before it got over examining her and decided to eat her anyway. Or, failing that, because perhaps it didn't like eating people, how long before the sharks realized that they weren't dogs and they ate her instead. Or, failing that, how long before whatever was allowing her to breathe ran out.

**

Elias had never found something so simple so difficult before. His arm was tingling and felt uncomfortably cold. His focus was tightly on the pendant, the water, Nare, Cali, somehow all at once. How difficult to simply keep gazing in the same direction and hold his arm out straight, over the water. He wanted to look away, to look at Nare, to grab her hand for reassurance that his sister, his very life, would return from that water. He wanted to flex the hand that held the necklace and brush a rogue curl out of his face. He wanted to speak and ask why and how. Now and then short images and feelings would wash over him. Something gray, something red, a sandpaper texture against his leg. I only dog-paddle

Nare stared grimly at the thrashing in the water that was Cali, trying to channel the flashes she was recieving from the girl into Elias. The more he could feel from his sister, the better he would be able to give her the guidance she needed.

The auger's eyes flashed open as a sudden jolt of horror took her.

<i>Terein was her guide. But Elias had no one to watch over him. . .</i>

Nare nearly fell over herself as she sprinted the short distance to the boy.

His eyes were squinted in concentration, a frown beginning to deepen in his forehead and around his mouth. She quietly placed a cool hand on his shoulder, and wrapped her fingers around his closed fist. She knew that her connection to Terein would help Elias to guide his sister.

With her eyes closed, Nare could feel the drifting, dizzying pressure of water around her, hear the sound-filled silence of the ocean as water rushed back and forth over Cali's ears. Nare slowly inhaled deeply and instinctively stopped her nose to hold her breath, feeling Cali's chest expand as she did the same. Elias twitched beside her, and she knew that his now vestigal connection was also being influenced by her actions.

Now was as good a time as any for him to learn, and Cali's knowledge that he was watching over her would help to keep her calm.

She urged Cali's legs forward, to kick and to use her ams to propel herself. Slowly, she felt the girl pulling herself toward the mass of red and gold . . .

It's body was an ugly sort of shape, the kind peculiar to things that live in the water and don't need perfect proportions to keep them balanced like land animals. It seemed to have too many legs all together, perhaps a head, and not very much middle. Cali couldn't even determine where its mouth began, though she was certain it had a big mouth, big enough at least to swallow Thor without trying too hard.

She felt pushed towards it, though perhaps it was only the waves. The sea creature was in a position awkward for Cali, almost completely upside down, it held firmly to the bottom of their boat with a few of its appendages, and regarded her with big, flat eyes.

It pushed her experimentally with one limb, and watched as she kicked her legs to regain her position. It pushed her back again and Cali almost would have laughed if her breathing had been easier or if she hadn't been half concerned that it was playing with her like a cat would a mouse.

She kicked towards it again and this time it didn't push her back but let her approach its face, almost in spite of herself she touched it's head just below the eyes, and again almost laughed as it went cross-eyed to try and see her, but instead she gasped as foreign thoughts and shadows began to cross her mind.

There were pictures of caves and watery valleys. Creatures she couldn't name, more creatures like the one in front of her and many others. Some, even beautiful. There were feelings of anger and hurt. There were pictures of drown humans, big boats, spears, and plenty of shimmery red-gold blood of these creatures that mixed with the sea when the boats went by. Most of all there was fear.

Cali snatched her hand away and looked almost accusingly at the big creature. Her hand was cold and the last intense feeling of fear leftover sent her heart racing, pumping her body full of adrenaline. She was ready to strike out at the creature now, but kept her hand balled up and close to her body, trying to think things out, trying to seperate her emotions from whatever she had just recieved.

**

Up on deck, Nare tried to sort through what Cali sending her. Cali wasn't conscious that she was sending thoughts at all, and so what Nare had access to was all mixed up. After a bit, she was able to seperate threads that were tight and quick and cabled, from those that were smoother and quieter and deeper. Cali's thoughts, the Kraken's, her own, and Elias', it was a lot of things to sort out.

She quickly sent soothing thoughts to Cali when Cali became scared and reactionary from what the kraken had shown her. Smooth, calm, reassuring, she encouraged Cali to negotiate with the creature.

She sent edited images to Elias, who's frown was even deeper by now.

Cali's role and behavior would now be critical, she thought. The must be on the edge of the creature's territory, and clearly it hadn't had very good experiences with boats before. Nare hoped Cali wasn't going to offend it more or make it feel threatened. She's sweet-talked her way out of messes before she thought, please, please make our little silver-tongued theif smooth enough to get us out now

She looked again at Elias, so serious now, and wondered if she would have to explain why they'd chosen Cali. His older sister, his little girl, her slick, theiving ways that he knew nothing about.

Narenial squeezed her eyes shut tight, shocked and upset by the pain this creature felt. As one in a dream, she reached forward and smoothed her hand over the air; Cali's fingers reached forward in her mind and brushed against the being, just beneath its great, somber eye.

A strong, sudden flash of confusion, and the feelings ceased. Nare reeled slightly as she attempted to pull in the majority of the pain filtering through Cali, away from the siblings and into herself. She braced her legs and began to whisper, teeth grinding as she pressed her forehead into Elias' back.

<i>Please get the hint, Cali, please . . .</i>

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Cali's eyes slowly drifted closed, and her fingers slowly drifted away from the . . . thing. It stared at her a moment, before untangling its long limbs from the boat and pushing off, scattering a few sharks that had decided to hang around. Her eyes opened again, and she determined that the creature had been endowed with a silent, almost ethereal grace and beauty. It glided away, jetting powerfully backwards out of sight. She sighed inwardly, and turned her head toward the surface, beginning to kick upward.

It was just as she broke the surface and sucked precious air deep into her lungs that a blindingly pure flash of white burned behind her eyes . . .

Brina wanted to help. She did. It just seemed as though there was nothing for her to do. She stood to the side and watched Nare and Elias, her gaze not faltering for a second.

It seemed to her, as she watched, that some sort of exchange was going on, most likely between Cali and Elias due to the fact they were brother and sister. It also seemed that Nare was becoming something of a witness to the exchange since she was touching Elias and her was holding her necklace. As Brina tried to sort everything out in her mind, suddenly, without explanation, she felt something pass through her body. For a moment she was a statue. For a moment her eyes glazed, her body froze, and everything around her was forgotten.

Then, as if nothing had happened, Brina regained consciousness. All color had drained from her face, her breathing was heavy and her hands were shaking. Brina stayed like that for a moment before looking to where Nare and Elias were, she saw Cali come from beneath the water. Still unsure of what had just happened to her, she moved closer to the boat's edge and threw Cali down a rope she could grab onto.

Cali snatched at the rope that Brina threw down to her and held on while those on the boat gathered round to haul her up. She gasped as a wave of pain hit her and nearly let go of the rope. She clutched her hands tight for a breathless moment while a pure white flash left her momentarily blind, and then it was gone and she was back on the deck, Elias pounding her back while she sputtered up sea water.

She sat back on her heels and breathed for a moment, and then using Brina's arm for support she stood up and looked at the others. She felt slightly shakey and confused still. She brushed wet curls back off her neck and assessed what her body was telling her.

"Right." She said after a moment, looking at the three other faces around her, all three of them looking more strained than she was, which she felt was strange and probably took some explaining. "Is there a short version for what just happened, or shall we do this over dinner?"

"I think dinner is probably a good idea for all of us" Said Brina, smiling a bit. Taking time to eat something she hoped would help them all regroup.

Nare and Brina rummaged through their sacks of provisions while Cali attempted to dry herself out a bit, and Elias watched his sister anxiously.

"What?" Cali asked him finally. He just frowned. "I'm just wet, it's fine. I'll dry." She told him, wringing out her hair on the deck.

She sat down near Brina and Nare and reached eagerly for some food. "Right, what did I just do? What was that thing? How much longer are we out here and have to worry about those creepies? And is Elias just crazy or is there actually reason to be frowning?"

She bit off a bit of bread large enough to make her having very concerning facial expressions while she ate it, and waited for answers.

Brina used what they had for food to make something that would help calm everyone's nerves. She sensed she wasn't the only one feeling uneasy. Nare helped her put the food together and once they finished they all sat down.

After Cali began asking questions, Brina's mind went back to wondering about what had happened to her. She decided to share was happened with her companions and try to figure it all out. She spoke slowly and as though she was very distant.

"A moment before you came above water, I got this...feeling. Like I was receiving...a vibration of some sort...but it also sort of felt like a breeze passing by. It was wierd. And for that moment it was like I was there but I wasn't. And I saw all sorts of things..." Brina's eyes stared at her hands, as though she thought they might hold answers for her questions. "What happened out there? There was some sort of connection, I could tell, but what happened during it? And how does it help us?" Her eyes rose and looked at Nare, who she knew had answers.

Brina watched as Nare apologized to Calid for her actions in the woods. She sighed and let go of Nare's fingers. She was starving, and though she felt it her duty to watch over Nare, she was starting to lose her concentration due to lack of sleep. As she began to eat, Nare exscused herself and went upstairs. Seeing the dark spots on Nare's dress, she sighed again and look at Calid, trying to figure out what happened. Nothing, Nare had just got up and left.

Brina exscused herself, and told Calid she would be back in a moment. Exchanging looks with Jakkin, she also went upstairs to find Nare. She found her, and leaned on the wall in the doorway.

"Nare?" She asked, tilting her head to the side. "Are you okay? Need to talk about something?"